President Donald Trump has upped the ante in his trolling of Democrats worried about the prospect of him abolishing term limits to cling onto power with a new video in which he threatens to run for office “4EVA.”
In the clip posted to Truth Social on Sunday, a mock Time magazine cover is shown with the headline, “How Trumpism Outlasts Trump,” which is then zoomed in on to reveal a series of yard signs carrying the future campaign slogans “Trump 2028,” “Trump 2032,” “Trump 2036” and so on, all set to Edvard Grieg’s ominous “In the Hall of the Mountain King.”
The signs roll on to a final one, brandished by the president himself, reading “Trump 2048” that proceeds to tick upwards through the election years, reaching the year 90,000 before revealing the message: “Trump 4EVA.”
The president’s real point appears to be that his MAGA movement will live on long after he has departed. His trolling post may also have been aimed at the “No Kings” rallies held across the U.S. at the weekend, protesting the president’s use of his power since returning to office.
Amid ongoing concern for his health, Trump has made a habit of dwelling on his own mortality of late, musing on the question of whether or not he will be welcomed into heaven.
Most recently, he told Peter Doocy of Fox News on a flight from Washington, D.C., to Israel: “I don’t think there’s anything going to get me in heaven. I really don’t. I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound.
“I may be in heaven right now as we fly on Air Force One. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make heaven, but I’ve made life a lot better for a lot of people.”
The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution limits a president to no more than two terms in the White House, meaning that Trump cannot run again in 2028.
That has not stopped him repeatedly teasing the prospect of serving a third term, notably during a recent meeting with congressional Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer in the Oval Office when “Trump 2028” caps were displayed on the Resolute Desk as a provocation.
In practise, getting a constitutional amendment through Congress to scrap the current presidential term limits would be a tall order, even for Trump.
A proposal for a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, where Republicans currently hold a slim majority – a balance that could shift after next year’s midterms.
Ratifying such an amendment if it passed Congress would then require the approval of three-fourths of all state legislatures.
Democrats have nevertheless sounded the alarm, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for one, telling Stephen Colbert last month: “I fear that we will not have an election in 2028 – I really mean that in the core of my soul – unless we wake up to the code red of what’s happening in this country and we wake up soberly to how serious this moment is.”
